Defense chief wants OCD turned into a gov't department

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has proposed that the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) be turned into a government department in order to improve the government's response to calamities.

At present, the OCD is an attached agency of the Department of National Defense (DND) and is the operating arm of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), which is composed of various government agencies.

As DND secretary, Lorenzana is also the chairman of the NDRRMC — jobs, he said, that are difficult to juggle.

"The problem here is I have other jobs like managing our operations against the enemies of the state, which is also 24 hours (job). At times, I couldnt focus on it," he said, referring to disaster response.

"So we'd like to elevate the OCD into a department level to give it more teeth to implement policies to mitigate disaster, or prepare and mitigate disasters," he added.

In order for this to happen, Republic Act 1012 of 2010, the law that strengthens the country's disaster risk reduction and management system, must be amended, Lorenzana said.

It was not immediately clear if the proposed amendment of RA 10121 of 2010 will mean that the defense secretary will cease to be the NDRRMC chairman.

NDRRMC spokesperson Romina Marasigan said the proposed amendment is a product of consultations since last year. She said the NDRRMC is championing the amendment through some legislators. —KBK, GMA News